Thursday, June 4, 2015

MILWAUKEE — A UW System Board of Regents committee on Thursday voted against formally opposing controversial changes to faculty tenure proposed by Republicans in the state Legislature, neglecting a mostly symbolic motion to tell lawmakers to strip the tenure changes from law...

Regent Gerald Whitburn sponsored a replacement amendment which, instead of asking lawmakers to reconsider the tenure changes, would direct a Regents task force on tenure to take up the layoff measures instead...

The committee approved Whitburn's amendment by a 4-3 vote. Joining [Wisconsin Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony] Evers in opposing it were Jose Vasquez and Mark Bradley. The vote was met by loud boos.

7 comments:

The real shame of the attack of the Looters on the UW is that it will take about 5-8 years to really see the effects. Those faculty who earned tenure in the last five years will be the first to leave for better opportunities, and there will be the heavy-hitters in biological and medical research who will leave because they will be recruited by (mainly southern) universities with more resources eager to build their programs fast. The older faculty will stay because it is simply not worth the trouble to leave and they actually do have some loyalties (the GOP notwithstanding), but eventually they'll retire. The next phase will be marked by headlines like: "UW faces faculty recruiting problems" as top candidates (and surprisingly although vacancies normally attract 200-250 applications, all the AAU universities with openings focus on the same 10 top candidates) avoid the UW. The wrap up phase will occur around 2020 when the MJS starts running "UW sees dramatic drop in rankings" headlines. Pity the poor smaller campuses like Parkside or Oshkosh, they'll envy Superior's 30% faculty turnover rate.

Dr. Morbius is absolutely right about the effects that changes in tenure and shared governance will have on the quality of the faculty. I'd add that making it possible to fire any faculty member when the administration wants to change the "direction" of a program amounts to the right to fire anyone anytime. I'd also add that when talented faculty scholars and researchers start leaving or avoiding UW, they will also start steering their most talented undergraduate and graduate students away from UW as a place to earn their advanced degrees or do post-doc work. The quality of the students will fall just as the quality of the faculty will fall, though with a delay of a few years.

Michael M. Grebe, Walker's latest Board of Regents appointment and son of Walker's gubernatorial campaign chair and Bradley Foundation CEO Michael W. Grebe, might have let slip where this is all headed yesterday. Not even confirmed as a Regent yet, Grebe suggested eliminating degree programs on some UW System campuses and stated that he wouldn't rule out closing some campuses.

Combine those statements with item #39 from the JFC omnibus motion #521 inserted into the budget bill by Republicans, and it looks like some major cuts of programs, faculty, and staff could be coming. Item #39 gives the Board of Regents the authority to “terminate any faculty [tenured or not] or academic staff…due to a budget or program decision regarding program discontinuance, curtailment, modification, or redirection.”

I don't think any campus is safe. Cross and the Board of Regents (with the few admirable exceptions) will do as told.

Milwaukee River empties into Lake Michigan

Wisconsin wind farm, east of Waupun

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What water, wetland protection is all about

"A little fill here and there may seem to be nothing to become excited about. But one fill, though comparatively inconsequential, may lead to another, and another, and before long a great body may be eaten away until it may no longer exist. Our navigable waters are a precious natural heritage, once gone, they disappear forever," wrote the Wisconsin Supreme Court in its 1960 opinion resolving Hixon v. PSC and buttressing The Public Trust Doctrine, Article IX of the Wisconsin State Constitution.